The School and Governor Support Service provides a professional, low-cost support service to governing bodies under a three-year service agreement. The agreement sets minimum levels of service and has systems in place to monitor and maintain the quality of the service.
Under the service level agreement, for each governing body the support service will do the following:
- Help the governing body to set agendas for meetings.
- Produce all relevant documents needed for a meeting.
- Post all documents to governors seven days before a meeting.
- Provide a support officer at the governing body meetings to: record all business discussed; give advice to governors; report back on matters arising from previous meetings or correspondence; and send a copy of the meeting's 'minutes' (the official record of the meeting) to the headteacher and the chair of governors for them to approve.
- Process any follow-up work from the meeting.
- Keep in touch with and advise the headteacher and the chair of governors between meetings.
- Make sure the governing body's documents contain all the information they must, by law, contain.
- Run an advice line for all governors.
- Produce a summary of actions agreed at meetings and provide this to all governors.
- Produce reports for governors on all aspects of education, including any issues we want governors' views on.
Training and Development
The support service is committed to providing high quality training and development opportunities for governors and governing bodies. Induction training for new and inexperienced governors is held each term, and the service also provides training relating to improving schools, managing resources, employment, information and communication technology and special educational needs. An annual governors' conference was held in March 2007 focussing on Every Child Matters. This provided the opportunity for governors to network and attend a series of workshops that assisted them in their own personal development as a governor, and that of the governing body. We are in the process of planning the 2008 conference, which it is planned will be held in March.
An analysis of the evaluation forms show that all governors thought the courses delivered during the previous year were 'satisfactory' or better, and 90% of governors said that the content and delivery of their course were 'good' or 'very good'. Each course is written by specialists who usually also deliver the course.
Governing bodies pay the service a yearly charge for providing that training and development. In return, governors can get training on all aspects of being on a governing body and they do not have to pay any more for that training.
Consultation
A focus group known as 'Governors' Voice' meets once per term to discuss issues relating to the support service and, in particular, how the service could be improved. If you are interested in joining the group you should contact the Manager of the School and Governor Support Service for more details.
At the beginning of each term we hold a briefing and consultation session for governors. At these sessions governors can all contribute to the early stages of our decision-making process. Also, the support service holds an Annual Governors' Conference which all governors, and anyone with an interest in the management of schools, can go to. These conferences are at the heart of our consultation processes.
